a series of feature films reflecting some of the finest work of many of France's most famous and talented directors and artists
starring Gerard Blain, Jean-Claude Brialy
with Juliette Mayniel, Claude Cerval, Genevieve Cluny
Produced, written, and directed by Claude Chabrol

Charles arrives in Paris from the provinces to study law at the Sorbonne. He shares a flat with his sophisticated cousin Paul who boasts a succession of mistresses, a fast sports car, and a general air of arrogant insolence. Against a background of wild parties and general debauchery, the worthy Charles tries to study for his exams. At first fascinated, then appalled by his cousin's cynicism and corruption, he believes he has found in one girl, Florence, a single sincere mind among his cousin's parasitic friends. But when she allows herself to be seduced by Paul, Charles is completely disillusioned. He accepts his position as an odd man out and concentrates on his studies.
Only when Paul, and not he, succeeds in his exams, does he revolt. Even then an ironic twist of fate deals him an unexpected hand.
Charles Chabrol, the director of tonight's film, is generally credited with starting France's New Wave cinema. In 1958 he made a short feature film, Le Beau Serge. It starred two young actors, Gerard Blain and Jean-Claude Brialy, both discovered through the short films of Truffaut and Godard, and told the story of a young, weak-willed drunkard living in a small country village whose redemption is undertaken by a worldly school-friend from Paris. Les Cousins was Chabrol's second film and he employed the same stars in similar roles. Gerard Blain plays with a hesitant intensity reminiscent of James Dean, while Brialy shines with the grandiloquence and panache of a Brasseur.